Points of view: What the parties think

Spending

The government has already said it will slow the increase in public spending from 1.8% to 1.2% from 2011. In the pre-budget report the chancellor identified £35bn of cuts, about £5bn of which he hopes to save through government efficiency.

A week before the pre-budget report the Conservatives ended their year-old commitment to match Labour's spending plans for 2010-2011. Then, they said the only rise in public spending they would sanction would be that incurred by the automatic stabilisers - natural rises associated with a recession. This week they said they would start cutting back in 2010 instead of 2011 depending on an election.

The Lib Dems are somewhere between the two, agreeing with the government that the Tories approach amounts to a "do-nothing" party and saying they believe there should be some Keynesian capital spend on items such as high speed rail links and low carbon technology.

Debt

Labour

The government is scheduled to borrow £78bn this year and £118bn next year.

Conservatives

The Tories ended their commitment to match Labour's spending plans in order, they say, to start paying money back to the Exchequer.

Liberal Democrats

They say they agree with the government that the debt to GDP ratio is not actually too worrying and a lot lower than other countries. They also say that it is impossible to rule out even further borrowing so they are much more in tune with Labour than the Tories.

Tax

Labour

The VAT change announced in the pre-budget report, costing about £20bn, will be funded by tax increases from 2010. The 2.5% cut in VAT was accompanied by a new 45p higher rate of tax for those earning more than £150,000.

Conservatives

Though they say they believe in lower taxes in principle they have not yet been drawn on whether a 2010 Tory government could announce tax cuts and indeed have not ruled out having to raise taxes. They opposed the VAT cut arguing it would prolong the recession and since people, aware that there are tax rises on the horizon to pay for the £20bn, taxpayers will hoard rather than spend their money now.

Liberal Democrats

They want permanent, fully-funded tax cuts for those on low and average incomes, paid for by increased tax on high earners and closing loopholes on pensions. They oppose the VAT cut, arguing the money would be better off spent on capital spending programmes.

Banks

Labour

The government's first £37bn bank bail-out doesn't seem to have worked since the billions injected in the recapitalisation scheme didn't make the banks resume lending to small businesses and homeowners. So the government is thought to be reconsidering - possibly action as drastic as forcing the banks to resume lending.

Conservatives

The Tories say their idea of a national loans guarantee scheme is being copied by the government - they want to get banks lending again by underwriting lending to business.

Liberal Democrats

At the moment, they are closer to the government than the Tories arguing that it should be the government that should remain involved in cajoling banks to lend, so they can gain should there be a resumption in lending.